When was the last time you hugged a tree? Like me, your answer is probably “never”. When was the last time you breathed? Dumb question, huh? Well, at least you know a little bit more about me now. I am not a tree-hugger, but I do recognize that trees give off the oxygen we need to sustain ourselves and our environment … which it seems may be turning against us.

Over the past few years, awareness of environmental issues has been heightened. From the shrinking polar ice caps and extreme weather phenomena to Al Gore and his team’s winning of the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts “to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change”, and for laying the “foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change”. With the media banging the gong of environmental awareness, perhaps this trend is the harbinger of “green” change in our classrooms. Perhaps, but then there has always been resistance to change in education.

I once heard that many years ago the philosopher Aristotle postulated that heavy objects fall faster than lighter ones, in direct proportion to their weight. Well, eventually the physicist / mathematician / astronomer Galileo Galilei (himself a philosopher too!) climbed to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and dropped balls of the same material, but different masses. I think you all know the result of that experiment; both objects hit the ground in unison. Through this result, Galileo clearly demonstrated that the objects’ time of descent was not related to their mass. However, for at least another fifty years or so, guess which theory continued to be taught at the University of Pisa? That’s right, it was Aristotle’s.

Today, environmentalists claim that unless radical change is adopted, our hospitable world might turn most ‘gnarly’ and ‘heinous’, even in as much as fifty years. OK, so the big question is how can we change? How can we teachers ‘go green’?

I would suggest we need to first identify the arenas for change. For example, we could consider revamping the overall education industry, and how it approaches the idea of teaching and leaning environments. But perhaps that would be thinking too big. Let’s start with more practical issues: (a) our own classrooms and (b) the resources and materials we deliver the lesson with.

So, I guess a good place to start is to begin by thinking about what’s right in front of us throughout the lesson: lots and lots of coursebooks and material. It would certainly come as no surprise that a whole lot of trees were destroyed to create these books. When you figure that for every coursebook, there is most likely a (vocabulary) companion, workbook, test-book, teachers book (also one for each component), and photocopiable exam material. When you consider this, then suddenly you begin to understand where all the trees might have gone. Oh yeah, apart from the above, students of course, have notebooks… usually more than one as they tend to lose their composition notebooks from time to time.

And then there is the photocopier. Some schools prohibit the use of photocopiable material for either plagiaristic or economic reasons, others do not however. I’m sure you all know which of these two categories your school fits into. But on a more personal basis, are you aware of just how much you use a photocopier for your lessons? Consider the following:

School owners (at least for those who want to leave a paper trail): grade reports, attendance, homework registers, progress reports, term tests, lesson plan forms. Some schools also create newspapers and posters and then there are the black-white-green-boards, etc. And, let’s not forget the mountains of advertising leaflets that end up being stuck to someone’s car windshield or blanketing some park or thoroughfare.

Examination bodies and test syndicates: Do they really need to produce exams utilizing so much paper? Computer based testing is quickly becoming commonplace in some parts of the world. Why not in all parts of the civilized world? And, since the exam bodies have the direct attention of so many candidates, wouldn’t it be green of them to use ‘exam day’ to disseminate information (in the reading and listening comprehension papers) that will foster environmental awareness on the part of our students? Why not use the tests for teaching purposes? Isn’t that we strive for anyway? Am I really thinking too big here?

Teachers: I know some that hate carrying all those books, so they copy the pages of the course components they are using each week. How about all that extra task and quiz material you copy from other books because you don’t want to make your own? By the way, it is cheaper to do printouts with a laser printer than to make photocopies.

Obviously, all in all, the average language school certainly is a factor in our world’s diminishing source of oxygen. Excuse the pun, but man o’ man let’s talk about not seeing the forest for the trees! Yes, Johnny, what we’re talking about here is: no trees, no oxygen. Isn’t it high time we all begin to rethink about how we can continue to provide the education our students need, and still ensure that they and their children will have a world to use it in?

The obvious way to address these concerns is to turn to computer technology to lead the way. Why have printed material when we students can all simply use a computer network (both in the class and at home) to access materials. In fact, it is conceivable that students can even submit their homework to their teachers without having to print anything out and lug it to class. The obvious answer, as to why such an e-learning environment has not long been established as a norm in our cities, especially since the viability of such a system has existed since at least the late 1980s, is a financial one. It still comes down to cold hard cash … which come to think of it is also printed on paper.

It’s my opinion that publishers, who in most respects are the biggest offenders in this regard, need to begin rethinking how their material is published and proliferated. Yes, I know this would be a major undertaking. Perhaps a good place to start is by not printing teacher books. Is there really any reason why this material can’t be simply electronically published, say in an Adobe PDF file? Teacher versions of all the course components could easily be accesible via tabbing. Teachers need only carry a PC notebook, netbook, or Ipad. Links can made integrate the material to an electronic whiteboard or powerpoint projector, etc. Such material could obvioulsy include printable material for the students on the fly. No more photocopies, etc.  I for one would rather carry my PC notebook to class rather than 20 books.

Anyway, as I mentioned above, there is always resistance to change and for a plethora of reasons, but I have no doubt that in the near future, some innovative publisher will lead the way by developing a completely (and complete) electronic English language course that is paperless and ‘green’. That would be quite an innovation! And, if we could get schools to actually adopt it … well we would certainly be on our way to saving our planet as well as our children’s future.

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